The science and design of Genius Finder®

Genius Finder is based on the psychology of individual differences and the theory of cognitive diversity.

We aim to capture the range of work-related skills that vary per individual and environment. From that, we analyse strengths and signpost strategies to compensate for difficulties.

Genius Finder is based on robust psychological evidence and has been subject to psychometric scrutiny, which has found it to be a scientifically reliable and valid measure.

Our observation is that when our clients have a difficulty, they stop remembering their strengths. This leads to cycles of worsening self-esteem and confidence, which can make a simple problem worse.

The Genius Finder takes a balanced approach to skill profiling, helping to uncover strengths that might be taken for granted.Our Range of Assessed Skills is listed here. These have been verified with psychometric analysis of the questionnaire, and have achieved a high-level of reliability and validity.

1. Social communication

2. Literacy

3. Numeracy

4. Reading Concentration

5. Self-organising

6. Memory

7. Motion and Balance

8. Creativity

9. Typing

10. Emotional Regulation

11. Manual Dexterity

12. Sensory Regulation

13. Spatial Thinking

The Psychometric Technical Manual presents detailed data on the psychometric properties of the Genius Finder. This data demonstrates that the Genius Finder meets the necessary technical requirements with regard to reliability and validity.ReliabilityThe reliability of a test assesses the extent to which variation in the test’s scores is due to true differences between people on the characteristics being measured – in this case a set of 13 skills – or to random measurement error.Reliability is generally assessed using one of two different methods; one assesses the stability of the test’s scores over time (test-retest), the other assesses the internal consistency, or homogeneity, of the test’s items.

The Genius Finder has been assessed several times for internal consistency, with two samples of 534, 1232 individuals. We have not conducted test-retest, as we expect scores to change over time as people improve their experience using our strategies, or indeed if they change jobs.ValidityThe fact that a test is reliable only means that the test is consistently measuring a construct, it does not indicate what construct the test is consistently measuring. The concept of validity addresses this issue. As leading psychometrician Paul Kline noted “a test is said to be valid if it measures what it claims to measure”.

An important point is that a test’s reliability sets an upper limit for its validity. That is to say a test cannot be more valid than it is reliable, because if it is not consistently measuring a construct it cannot be consistently measuring the construct it was developed to assess.The Genius Finder has been assessed with exploratory and confirmatory factor analysis to assess for construct validity, against two samples of 534 and 1,232 individuals working in various companies and departments. The demographic data of the which neurotypes experienced difficulties in which areas also provides a form of concurrent validity.